2019 Review Of The Year

Another year, another poll.

This year's review covers logs #119 to #170 - that's 52 weeks from 6th January to 29th December 2019.

Unlike most annual lists entries are not limited to releases that actually came out in 2019. In fact most of my listening is from the rock archives and you won't find many brand new releases here.

Some categories below are based on gut feelings, some on actual statistics. Some stats are for the year  only and some (particularly where it is difficult to isolate just the change on the year) are cumulative since records began (in October 2016).

1. Most Played Artist Overall: Neil Young

[last year's winner: Neil Young]

Neil Young has consolidated his place at the top of the appearances chart with 26 appearances since records began (up from 15 at the end of last year).

Seedy Neil

Neil Young listens were bolstered by some new releases of archive material such as the Hitchhiker album and live recordings from the vaults like Tonight's The Night At The Roxy. While preparing a rundown of his entire album discography I also visited some of his more recent (post millennium) albums too.

One Van and his dog

Van Morrison has moved up to 2nd place from 4th last year - his records are always great go to music for lazy Sunday afternoons or when visitors are around. You can safely stick 6 of his albums on shuffle and be done, and I believe Morrison is one of only a small handful of artists to have had the clean sweep honour of holding all 6 slots in the player at any one time.

The much more embracing The Felice Brothers are now joint third (with Tangerine Dream who weren't played quite so much this year but remain steady).

Proving cream will eventually move to the top The Felice Brothers led by the genius songwriter Ian Felice are joined by John Martyn (also a subject of a forthcoming album rundown review) and The Beatles, both firmly established in the Top 10.

There are lots of expected appearances in the chart from established favourites like Can, Floyd, Zeppelin, Dylan and Beck but a surprise to me is a strong showing from Laura Marling at 7th=. And then a little further down Paolo Nutini who is relatively new to me, and German electronic maestros Cluster come in at the top of my renewed interest in German experimental rock of the 70s (a wide category that dilutes the showings of individual artists).

This year's appearances table:

Here is last year's table of appearances:

I can see some artists haven't moved at all this year (Whitest Boy Alive, Afro Celts, Black Sabbath and The Cocteau Twins).

2. Most Played Artist This Year: Neil Young

[last year's winner: Tangerine Dream]

A great advance up the chart for John Martyn and The Felice Brothers who both came from nowhere relatively, but in terms of pure numbers Neil Young showed the most advances with 11 appearances in the year.

3. Best Band: Harmonia

[last year's winner: Tangerine Dream]

This award could logically simply go to the artist played the most but this year it is going to a band new to me that reignited a long standing interest in "krautrock".  Harmonia are actually more of a collective of musicians who variously appear as parts of a number of bands from the German experimental rock scene. As the short lived permutation Harmonia they only produced two proper albums in the mid 70s but enough for Brian Eno to declare them the most important rock band in the world.

4. Best New Band: The Decemberists

[last year's winner: Stars Of The Lid]

I've discovered quite a few new (to me) bands and artists this year - as detailed in the album of the year shortlist for the most part.

But in the spirit of something truly new and surprising the award goes to The Decemberists who I was only vaguely aware of, perhaps even mixing them up with the heartwarming TV Show The Detectorists (which I also discovered literally on the last day of this year, plus the music of Johnny Flynn).

The award is on the strength of their Picaresque album packed through with great folk rock where the rock is more than the folk.

5. Most Unexpected Rediscovery: Laura Marling

[last year's winner: Radiohead]

Talking of folk most unexpected rediscovery goes to Laura Marling who I had previously written off  in that fly by night nu-folk category fronted by the likes of Fleet Foxes and those annoying waist-coated country gents masquerading as The Pogues or something.

To see her in my Top 10 of all time plays was a surprise to me as I only have two of her albums and haven't particularly rushed to buy more. But the two I have are both excellent and (evidently) keep returning to the player.

I'm not a fan of many female singers (I can leave Joni Mitchell) but Marling's voice is great and her guitar playing unusual which gives her songs unique characteristics.

6. Best Album: Tord Gustavsen Trio -The Other Side

[last year's winner: Jan Jelinek - Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records]

Possibly the most prestigious award at Bamyasi HQ the album of the year is one that I just sort of feel is a great album somewhere deep in my consciousness. Of course there are many great albums I already know about which get played every year but there's not much point giving it to established classics like Astral Weeks or On The Beach. The main point is it is either new to me, or it's a rediscovery from such a long time ago I had almost forgotten. This doesn't mean the award can't go to an established artist (Morrison and Young are still bringing out new albums and have old ones I haven't heard yet).

I also find myself going through phases of liking a particular type of music be it jazz, songwriters, classical or ambient - often for a period of a couple of months at a time, then moving on to something else. This year I would say the music I have enjoyed most consistently, and a type that has returned time and again to the player, is (as broadly defined) Krautrock, closely followed by further ambient excursions following my discoveries last year.

The shortlist of favourite albums is:

Gas - Pop
Fennesz - Endless Summer
Neil Young - Tonight's The Night At The Roxy
Felice Brothers - Celebration, Florida
Harmonia - Deluxe
Father John Misty - God's Favorite Customer
Nucleus - Plastic Rock
James Joys - Glyphic Bloom
Edgar Froese - Epsilon In Malaysian Pale
Floating Points - Elaenia
The Decemberists - Picaresque
Nils Frahm - All Melody
KLF - Chillout
Soft Hair - Soft Hair
Cluster - Sowiesoso
Alice Coltrane - Universal Consciousness
Ashra - New Age Of Earth

All excellent albums but the prize actually goes to a jazz album which is not particularly unusual or ground breaking. But in its sheer spaced out beauty it ticks all the boxes in what I want from piano music. Congratulations to Norwegian jazz pianist Tord Gustavsen for The Other Side.

7. Best Live Band: Richard Hawley

[last year's winner: Pussy Riot]

I again saw Pussy Riot at the Byline Festival this summer but this time, hampered by security and sound problems, they weren't half the experience of the first time.

Best gig award this year goes to Richard Hawley who I saw at Brighton Dome in October. With an artist like Hawley, who varies his output between romantic ballads and heavy rock, you are not certain what to expect. I imagine he has particular fans in both camps who may be disappointed with his choice live (particularly the ballad fans who may be more sensitive to the heavy rocking numbers?). As it happened he played nearly all heavy rock from a range of albums particularly his current Further and the stupendous Standing At The Sky's Edge which at times sounded like the wall of sound I've experienced at a Neil Young and Crazy Horse concert. All the fans seemed happy.

8. Most Read Blog Post Overall: Can's Albums Ranked From Worst To Best

[last year's winner: Can's Albums Ranked From Worst To Best]

No change here. This post is way out in front despite it being reproduced over at my sister site at Medium. People love lists and Can have a fanatical following who love discussing the relative merits of their relatively small output.

Lists (rankings) and specific album reviews continue to be more popular than the weekly logs. There will be some more coming in 2020 with Neil Young and John Martyn album rankings in the pipeline.

The next most popular articles since records began are as below in descending order:

Review of Rockpommel's Land by Grobscnitt
Review of 2018
Log #126
SAHB album ranking
Review of Byline Festival
Review of Refuge by Griffin Anthony

These all have 4 figure viewing figures but only one log in here.

Looking at just the logs the most popular in descending order are as follows:

Log #126 - Griffin Anthony
Log #73 - Servants of Science
Log #20 - Barclay James Harvest
Log #54 - Tangerine Dream
Log #11 - Roxy Music
Log #86 - The Incredible String Band
Log #118 - Low
Log #79 - Up, Bustle and Out
Log #61 - Hawkwind
Log #106 - Blue States
Log #133 - KLF
Log #78 - Stereolab

I can't immediately see any rhyme or reason to why these have been the popular ones. It wouldn't appear to be the artists necessarily.

Everyone likes a good quiz too and this challenging album cover quiz is still going strong.

It is intriguing what makes a post gain readers. It will be to do with the mysteries of SEO including the titles and the content of course, and to a large extent I assume just down to reaching a critical tipping point and gaining a momentum all of its own. Also perhaps the uniqueness of the subject.

Many logs are by definition very short pieces on 6 different albums where even the title of the post is a nonsensical combination of words from various album titles. This provides very diluted content for internet searchers. As the blog progresses I am inevitably starting to repeat my listening and consequently my writing too.

The oddest thing is something I mentioned last year. My most popular article anywhere by far is my Lynyrd Skynyrd piece which now has 35,000 views at Medium. Oddly it originally appeared as Log #23 here but gains no views on this platform. It doesn't happen to all posts I reproduce at Medium but the ones that do take off seem to have the potential to gain large viewing numbers. Added to the fact that my blog views have gone down significantly since Google discontinued Google + I have considered moving the whole blog to Medium but for now I have a separate magazine there of just selected highlights.

9. Most Read Blog Post Of This Year: Log #126 - There's A Party Going On, Griffin Anthony Picks 6

[last year's winner: not awarded]

Way out in front is this guest post by NY songwriter Griffin Anthony who chose 6 albums that were his established favourites or current obsessions. It's an eclectic selection, take a look.

10. Most Read Review Overall: Rockpommel's Land by Grobschnitt

[last year's winner: Rockpommel's Land by Grobschnitt]

Last year's winner German prog rockers Grobschnitt extend their lead this year. It's a tiny review but has been picked up on the net for some reason.

Excluding general essays, annual reviews, festival reviews and album rankings, the most popular music reviews for individual albums overall are:

Rockpommel's Land by Grobschnitt
Refuge by Griffin Anthony
In The Jungle Groove by James Brown
Zero F**ks by The Wreks!
Epsilon In Malaysian Pale by Edgar Froese

Worth also mentioning some excellent guest reviews gratefully received from Raphael Gouin Loubert, Kieran Baddeley and Sangmin Han. None of these have had quite the viewing figures to reach the Top 5 above but they are doing better than the regular Logs.

11. Most Read Review This Year: Refuge by Griffin Anthony

[last year's winner: not awarded]

For reviews written this year this mammoth over indulgence (the review, not the album) on Griffin Anthony's Refuge album gained a mind of its own and the most views. Thank you to Griff's marketing execs. for the invitation to write the review and their subsquent sharing of it. 

12. Best Festival: Love Supreme

[last year's winner: Byline]

Byline was great again but perhaps not quite as mind expanding as the first time, and everyone was suffering from some Brexit fatigue - the subject having been done to death last time.

Love Supreme is always a good day out, at a lovely site - and the weather has been kind every year I've gone. The headliners tend to be a bit cheesy but there is always a chance to hear some of the latest jazz on the scene (and some of the oldest too - Chick Corea being a highlight this year), and when you are lying in a warm field with a cup of nice local ale there's no better way to hear a jazz trio.

By the way I've just seen that Fyre Festival documentary on Netflix. Addictive viewing on how not to plan a festival.

13. Most Surprising Non Appearance Overall: Lou Reed

[last year's winner: King Crimson]

My pie in the sky aim is to have an entry by every artist under the sun on my blog such that the search bar will yield an answer for any enquiry. This is plainly impossible but 389 (up from 286 last year) artists have now have had an album entry. That's 103 new artists in a year, which sounds surprisingly high to me, although to be fair that would be an average of 2 new artists per week out of the 6 potential plays.

Many artists have broken their duck and sit at 1 appearance. The following have not yet appeared at all:

Johnny Cash, Pearl Jam, REM, Lou Reed, Gil Scott Heron, Daft Punk, Eric Clapton, BB King, Dr John, Free, Sex Pistols, Black Crowes, Tindersticks, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Moody Blues and Patti Smith.

The odd thing is I do have some great albums by these artists. I love Free - they were a class rock band but maybe just a bit old fashioned now, or too middle of the road? They spawned Bad Company who were pretty good too although I never replaced my LPs with their CDs. Tindersticks were my favourite band for a brief time about ten years ago but their unique brand of orchestral prog pop didn't have legs. Pearl Jam feature on one of Neil Young's best albums and their Ten album was a classic which meant a lot to me at the time. Patti Smith and Lou Reed have recorded classic albums. With his association with Velvet Underground (and having bought a new book on Andy Warhol recently) I have decided to award the prize to Lou Reed this year. He is very likely to break his duck next year.

14. Best Album Cover: Cluster & Eno

[last year's winner: The Tired Sounds Of Stars Of The Lid]

There were (and still are) some artists who take care with the presentation of their albums especially in the 70s. This year's award goes to the cover for the 1977 Cluster & Eno album featured in Log #153 showing a single microphone in front of a hedgerow against dusky skies. It says a lot about the "found sounds" and ambience within. But more than that, it's just one of those scenes that makes me want to be there.

Incidentally probably the runner up, Ashra's New Age Of Earth (top line centre, below) actually shows a very similar format on a larger scale, with the block in front of the sun. Actually come to think of it there are a bunch of albums that use this Space Odyssey 2001 monolith type image.

A mention too for the gorgeous green Epsilon album cover (joint runner up) which I just want to dive into despite the feeling there may be dinosaurs behind those ferns...

15. Best Music Book: Electric Eden by Rob Young

[last year's winner: Hotel California by Barney Hoskyns]

Electric Eden is a masterful book on the roots of English folk (and rock) music. It's not only a great read but has opened my listening to numerous artists I had not heard of before.

I always enjoy adding to my 33 1/3 series too and the one that has stood out for me this year is for an album I haven't actually heard; Zaireeka by Flaming Lips. The album was a bizarre experiment and not one I'm going to actually attempt to listen to as intended (via 4 CDs played on 4 players simultaneously!) but it makes for a fascinating read.

16. In Memoriam 2019

We all hear about a George Michael, Prince or David Bowie, but some important artists pass with barely a mention at the mainstream:

Daniel Johnston
Robert Hunter (Grateful Dead)
Ginger Baker (Cream)
Keith Flint (Prodigy)
Bernie Torme (Gillan, Ozzy Ozbourne)

Pete Tork (Monkees)
Pegi Young (Neil Young)
Ted McKenna (SAHB)
Mark Hollis (Talk Talk)
Scott Walker
Dr. John
Ric Ocasek (The Cars)